First Advantage CREDCO, a provider of specialized credit reports for the automotive industry, announced the introduction of a new comprehensive Red Flag Solution. The expanded product offering, which includes identity verification, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) screening and credit reporting services, is designed to help U.S. automotive dealers comply with the new Red Flag Rule, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

As a requirement of the new Red Flag Rule, dealers have until Nov. 1 of this year to establish and maintain an identify theft prevention program. First Advantage CREDCO’s Red Flag Solution combines several powerful information solutions that help dealers meet the new compliance requirements. To simplify compliance and streamline overall F&I dealer processes, the Red Flag Solution automatically delivers results with the buyer’s credit report.

“Anticipating and fulfilling dealer compliance requirements are foremost on our minds when it comes to product development,” said Eric Rumsey, president of First Advantage CREDCO. “We continually strive to proactively address local, state and federal mandates that could impede dealer operations or put them at risk for non-compliance. The result, in the case of our new Red Flag Solution, is a turn-key compliance tool that helps our dealer customers establish processes designed to meet their compliance requirements quickly and easily, so they can focus on sales.”

First Advantage CREDCO’s new Red Flag Solution includes:

--Identity Verification: Helps dealers quickly confirm their customer’s identity with an easy-to-interpret three-digit numeric score.

--OFAC Screening: Dealers can automatically screen car buyers against the OFAC list of terrorists, drug traffickers and money launderers prior to any sale.

--Credit Reporting Services: Offers dealers a convenient prequalification tool that provides single-source access to credit reports from any of the three national credit bureaus.

--Integrated Solution: All three product components are automatically included with the buyer’s credit report.

In 2007, First Advantage CREDCO ran a summer-long promotion to raise awareness regarding the value of protecting dealerships against identity theft and fraud-related losses, and to prepare them for the then-proposed Red Flag Rule. As a prelude to this expanded Red Flag Solution, last year’s promotion offered First Advantage CREDCO’s score-based identity verification product free to thousands of dealerships nationwide.

First Advantage CREDCO is continuing its compliance awareness initiative throughout 2008.